


Five First Kisses

by ProblemWithTrouble



Series: Pacific Rim [1]
Category: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-09-19 16:37:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17005242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProblemWithTrouble/pseuds/ProblemWithTrouble
Summary: The five first kisses that Hermann shared with Newt.





	Five First Kisses

1.

Hermann had known the first time he had placed his handwritten letter to Newt in the mail that it was a silly thing to do. It was the twenty first century, who still wrote by hand? But he had always been more comfortable and with handwritten letters and notices. They seemed less malleable than internet based communication, even if the majority of what he did was computer based. Surprisingly Newton had barely mentioned it and instead replied with his own handwritten letter delivered to Hermann’s office. 

The ink had changed colors a few time and there doodles in the margins of the torn out notebook paper that made Hermann wonder if he really was talking to the genius that had six PhDs and had been the first to find a way of neutralizing the kaiju blue for dissection, though he was still grappling with how get the same effect without killing all the ocean-life anyway. Hermann decided to reply anyway. At worst he was talking to an imposter with their own fascinating ideas of on kaiju. 

Months later and he was sure it was Newton’s inability to focus on anything for too long that made his letter resemble a middle school girls notebook more than a correspondence to a college. Though Newton didn’t seem to take their letter writing too seriously to start with. _PS: Dude, it’s so cool to get non-junk mail._ Newton had written in once when they had been going back and forth for months.

Hermann’s response to reading it had been a wide grin that made him thankful to have his own office. He wrote back immediately the way he did every time and placed the envelope in the mail that night on the way home and was back to waiting for the next letter. 

Three years later Hermann finished writing his final letter before they would be meeting in person and in a flood of emotions and nerves he placed a kiss on the fold of the letter. He stared at the letter for a long while before stuffing it into the envelope. His face burned as his throat closed up in embarrassment. This time not even his closed office door could save him.

2.

Their meeting in person had blown up in spectacular fashion. More than a little yelling that swung between English and German depending on which language had the correct amount of vitriol for that insult with one memorable lapse into Latin. Hermann didn’t write another letter when he returned home from his trip, split between indignation that he had nothing to apologize for and his own embarrassment at his behavior. He wouldn’t have even known where to start the letter as evidenced by multiple sheets of stationary he had purchased for his letter writing with only a few words scribbled at the top before being abandoned to the bottom drawer of his desk. 

Six years later and months of being forced to work in close proximity had healed most of the wounds. It had taken almost a year for them to both accept that screaming across a room, or hall, or mess was just how they communicated. It drove all their assistants and coworkers crazy as they had been explained to more than once by mediations held in HR. 

Now though Hermann would almost call them friends even if they had been in the HR managers office not two days earlier screaming at each other about Hermann throwing chalk at him and Newton returning fire with sterilized kaiju bits he didn’t need anymore. 

The thing about being friends with Newton was how tactile he could be with even the slightest excuse. Anything from a jaeger taking down a kaiju to a fresh pot of coffee could inspire a high five or a hug. 

They were in a crowded bar with mostly strangers, Tendo being the only person who hadn’t moved on to the next bar besides them. Hermann wasn’t much for bar crawls and it seemed neither were Tendo and Newton, much comfier in their booths with fries and nachos already ordered. 

Newton had been talking and touching and grabbing Hermann for emphasis for more than ten minutes when he finally quieted enough for Hermann to make a rebuttal, though it would take a second since he had stopped while Hermann had fries in his mouth. While he was swallowing his food Tendo cracked up laughing. 

“What?” Hermann asked instead of addressing the impossibility of Newton’s newest theory of time travel. 

Tendo motioned to where Newton was still holding onto Hermann’s arm. Neither of them had noticed. “And to think I ever thought you two hated each other.”

Newton laughed loudly and threw his head back. “Me? Hate Herms? Never.” Then he planted a loud and firm kiss on Hermann’s cheek that triggered more laughter. Tendo and Newton laughed so hard and so long that even Hermann started to laugh until he couldn’t even remember his argument with Newton at all. 

3.

They were flying back from their latest presentation to the PPDC top brass on a crowded commercial flight, pressed up together for the next 8 more hours. It had been a rough couple of days that had mostly consisted of trying to explain why a wall was never going to lock out kaiju. 

Hermann had barely slept, only catching a spare three or four hours when his body couldn’t sustain consciousness anymore. Somehow Newton had slept even less, he had always still been awake when Hermann went to bed and awake, showered, and holding a cup of coffee when Hermann first woke. 

It had started to show through stronger at the end, though Hermann was sure that he was the only one who could tell the difference between Newton’s normal outrageous energy and the full swing of a manic episode. He had pushed food at Newton every chance he could get, though he’s usually take a bite then walk away to do something else, prepare another argument for the “dick for brains macho cowards” as Newton had so kindly put it. 

All the lights in the plane and been turned down to simulate night as most of the passengers attempted sleep. Hermann didn’t even try. He had a schedule of every hour getting up and walking the plane end to end to stretch his leg so he could at least function a little once they landed. 

A sudden weight pressed against Hermann’s shoulder where Newton was sitting and Hermann turned his head to glare at him for taking up yet more space, probably just to annoy Hermann. He stopped before his lips had even parted to hiss at his lab partner. 

Newt’s head was against Hermann’s shoulder, his face relaxed into sleep like Hermann had been hoping for for a week. His face was slack and his glasses were crooked. Despite the fact that Hermann knew that Newt snored he still found it vaguely endearing to see the man at such peace. 

Careful not to jostle the other man too much Hermann adjusted his position so that Newt’s neck was just a little more straight and he’d complain less when he inevitably woke with a neck ache. 

In an affection fueled impulse Hermann pressed his lips into Newt’s head with just the barest pressure. It must have traveled though Newts dream because he snuggled closer to Hermann. 

4.

Even with the many sharp minds that surrounded Newt and Hermann at the PPDC – no one could say that Stacker Pentecost wasn’t a genius in his own right – they found that once the K-Science division had been whittled down to just two of them they were the only people they could speak plainly to regarding their work. 

Hermann was making himself another cup of tea as Newton continued on about how the DNA of the kaiju degraded before Newt could run his tests. 

“They have to have something other than DNA but I can’t find a single consistent chemical marker other than the Blue,” Newt complained. It was a problem he had been obsessed with for years, and Hermann had always pushed him off to one of the other biologists but now they were alone and Newt had him trapped while he waited for the kettle to boil. 

“Kaiju blue degrading your samples has never stopped you before,” Hermann said motioning to the slab of purple tissue that was on Newts desk that he had been calling a liver. How Newt had deduced that was beyond Herman. It wasn’t like they had ever been able to study how one of these monsters alive to understand how their bodies processed. 

“It doesn’t have the same effect on its own body as it does a table, Herms,” Newton said, exasperated yet somehow coming off a little fond. Though that was probably just Hermann’s ears playing tricks on him. 

“Don’t call me that,” Hermann started. 

“Oh come on, it’s just us. They fired everyone else.” Newt teased with a smile that looked a little defeated like if he thought about it too much longer he’d get truly sad. “You used to let me call you Herms.”

“I allowed you to call me that in our letters because the other option was Hermy and that’s even worse,” Hermann shot back. The water had started to boil and Hermann turned back around to finish his tea. 

“You love it,” Newt said. 

“I do not,” Hermann shot back even as his ears were getting warm. _I love you_ Hermann thought with no intention of ever saying it aloud. “What about the lining of the arteries or whatever creates the kaiju blue.”

“I thought the same thing, if any part of the kaiju is resistant to the corrosive properties it’d be the parts with the most contact but it’s still exactly the same. No deviation from one kaiju to the next.”

“This is why I prefer numbers, Newton,” Herman said. Newt started to make a mocking face as Hermann continued that he ignored. “There’s no room for this nonsense.”

“Yeah, yeah. Handwriting of God and all that,” Newt said, waving it off. 

“Yes, Newton. Even the kaiju obey mathematics,” Hermann said, stepping to move past Newt. “For all you know they truly don’t have DNA for you to study.” 

Hermann was ready for Newt’s bristling and argument, they had had the same one enough times to know it well and this was the start. Instead Newt’s eyes lit up and a grin spread across his face. His hands came up to grip the sides of Hermann’s face. “You’re a genius,” Newt said then planted a kiss on Hermann’s forehead. 

Hermann was shocked into perfect stillness even as Newton was rushing back to his side of the lab. When he shook free his only response was to say, “I’m aware.”

“What if they don’t grow or evolve like things on Earth. I mean their inter-dimensional aliens who use a portal in our ocean to attack us!” 

“They don’t evolve?” 

“They could be built,” Newt said with a wild grin. 

“You’re insane.”

“I’m aware.” Newt winked at him then went deep into his work. 

5.

Hermann was very aware of how the fabric of space and time could be warped and that nothing had genuinely changed but from the moment that he walked into the lab to see Newton on the floor time had been wrong. Hermann’s whole job revolved around time and calculations but it seemed to speed up and come to a stop at will; answering only to Newt’s proximity and voice. 

The seconds before he had been able to find a semi-steady pulse and see Newt breathing had stretched on, creating whole decades with every tick of the clock on the wall. 

The kaiju attack that caused them to lose some of their best rangers when Newt was in the city lasted only moments, slipping through Hermann’s mind in a blur of fear and self-loathing for having yelled at Newton before he went into the city, for having yelled at all. 

Now though, time was finding its hold again. The breech was closed but the mourning wasn’t over, even if people were taking what joy they could with their newfound safety. Mako and Raleigh were on their way back and in a few minutes the attention Newton was lapping up would ebb. Hermann was counting on it so that he could drag Newton to the infirmity for as many MRIs that Hermann could convince the nurses to give Newt. The man had drifted with a Kaiju twice in a matter of hours and was now riding so high on adrenaline that even as it started to fade from Hermann’s own system he could still feel the warm buzzing of Newton in his head. 

Tendo, who had been playing impromptu DJ came over the speaker system and announced that Mako and Raleigh were back and the crowd rushed the two rangers, whether to congratulate or thank Hermann wasn’t sure. He was far back from the mob when Newt looked over at him, probably feeling his relief and the start of a plan at the edge of his mind just like Hermann could feel the overwhelming pride that was blossoming in the corner of his mind. 

Newt extracted himself from the last few people who were talking to him about the drift, mostly engineers who wanted to know about the actual mechanical set up. 

“Hey man, were supposed to be rock stars right now. Join the party,” Newt said motioning back to the crowd. 

“I think not. We should be in with the medical wing getting checked,” Hermann said. 

Newts face went pale. “Are you hurt?”

“No, but neither of us are exactly rangers and if you remember we drifted with a kaiju,” Herman snapped at him. 

The smile returned to Newton’s face. “No shit. You worry too much to be a ranger.”

“Well most rangers don’t find their drift partners seizing on the floor.”

The grin faded again. “Alright, alright, you win.” They snuck out of one of the other entrances and into the halls. The sound of the party faded into the background, growing more faint with every step. 

Their steps squelched in the still air that was usually bustling with people. He supposed that wouldn’t be the case anymore now that the war was over. 

“Thanks again, Herms,” Newt said, his voice quiet to match the world around them. 

“Don’t call me that,” Hermann said even with a grin in his voice. 

“You love it.”

 _I love you._ The thought was loud in his own mind, somehow a mix of his own voice and Newton’s. There was a shot of pain and Newt grabbed his head. New drift partners sometimes got pain if an emotion or thought was too strong for the newly formed bond. It had happened a lot to Chuck and Herc when they had first been paired. He should have asked how they had gotten around it. 

“Did you, ah, hear me-that? Did you hear that?” Newt asked, his hand coming away from his head and looking at Hermann just a little scared. 

“Yes.”

“Cause it doesn’t have to mean anything. You’ve even said how friendships are hard and things with people are confusing so like...it’s totally good if it’s platonic. I mean it’d be great platonic-“

Herman cut him off. “Is platonic how you would categorize your,” Hermann made a motion at his own head. “affection?”

“Ah… no.” Newt’s face was gaining a bright red blush even as he kept his other features cool. “You?”

“We really shouldn’t be having this conversation until we’ve been checked for brain damage.”

“Oh, come on, man. You can’t just leave me hanging like that,” Newt said a sliver of fear joining his usual exasperation with Hermann. 

Hermann smiled at him wide. “No, Newton. It’s not platonic.”

Newts grin broke into full beaming. “Cool, cool, cool. Can I kiss you?”

Hermann’s own smile broke free from his control. “Yes.”

“Awesome, awesome, great. I just have to get my chill back or I’m just going to be running my teeth into you which would be so uncool.”

Hermann laughed and stepped closer so they were almost chest-to-chest. Newt seemed to gain some control again and was staring at Hermann’s lips. He leaned forward slowly until their lips were brushing and finally they were kissing.

For all that Hermann had dreamt of this moment it was still better than he ever could have expected with their smiles and the few long moments where it was really just a bare press of lips. 

Newt pulled back slowly and Hermann let him. “Awesome. Here’s to hoping it’s not the brain damage.” Newt laughed. 

Hermann knew he was being given an out but he just shook his head. “It’s not.”


End file.
